The British Stiff Upper Lip.

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Then read again and choose the word that collocates best with the
rest of the sentence.
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When in Britain, you must never complain. Complaining is very un-British.
If you are (1) ____________ [ made kept stayed held ]kept
waiting half an hour in a shop,
To be kept waiting. Made to wait
if a bus (2) ____________ [ conductor attendant assistant steward ] conductor
is rude to you, if a waiter brings your food ice-cold - you keep your mouth shut.
The
(3) ____________ [ hard inflexible firm stiff ] stiff
upper lip is the British way.
Other nationalities might make a
(4) ____________ [ discussion argument quarrel fuss ] fuss
,
You cause an argument but make a fuss
protest loudly or call for the manager, but not the British.

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Remember also that British ears are
(5) ____________ [ simply easily utterly modestly ] simply
not tuned to hear complaints. A friend of mine was a regular
(6) ____________ [ supporter purchaser customer guest ] guest Customers pay but guests don't
at a famous and expensive
London restaurant. Every day at 2:00pm and 9pm the
(7) ____________ [ mature elderly outdated vintage ] elderly
manager would come out
(as he had been doing for the last 37 years),
go from table to table and
(8) ____________ [ inquire query request probe ] inquire
"Did you enjoy your meal?"
For 37 years, hundreds of thousands of properly
(9) ____________ [ raised grown educated brought ] brought Phrasal verb
up English people had replied
to him. "Very much indeed." The man would smile, say "Thank you very much'. and
(10) ____________ [ motion progress stride shift ] progress
to the next table.

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One day however, the lunch was so
(11) ____________ [ offensive painful abominable harrowing ] abominable
that
my friend (Dutch mother ,
Albanian father) decided to tell him the naked truth. So, when the antiquated manager
(12) ____________ [ appeared surfaced descended joined ] appeared
at his table as usual and asked, 'Did you enjoy your meal, sir?' my friend replied: '
(13) ____________ [ Sincerely largely bluntly frankly ] frankly "Bluntly" is not used in direct speech.
,
not at all. It was appalling.'
To which the manager gave his
(14) ____________ [ customary average commonplace daily ] customary
, obsequious smile, said: "Thank you very much , sir', and moved on , quite
(15) ____________ [ convinced fulfilled satisfied complete ] satisfied

2

Complete each of these sentences with one of the words in the box below.